Driverless cars ahead

A man named David summons a car to his mountaintop home, and shortly afterward a driverless car — a BMW — pulls into his driveway, stops in front of the house and the driver-side door opens.

David gets in and heads for a large city nearby, driving the car himself. Later, in busy freeway traffic, the car’s communication system makes a phone call at his request to a business associate, Caroline. She asks if David can review some photographs and choose his favorite for an upcoming campaign. Caroline had e-mailed the photographs earlier, and she and the pictures now appear on screens on the dashboard to David’s right as the two communicate.

David decides at this point to let the car drive itself so he can devote full attention to Caroline and the photographs. The car self-drives him safely through the freeway traffic, and when the conversation is over, David takes control of the car again.

Arriving at his destination shortly afterward, he gets out in front of an office building, waves the car on and says, “Thank you. See you later.” The car replies, “I will be back to pick you up here at 11,” and drives itself away.

That’s how a BMW video depicts a not-so-distant future of driving. In fact, the autonomous-vehicle technology in the video is already performing well in BMW test cars.